IGN Turns to University Startup to Increase Video Views

For any website with video content, views are critical for not only sharing the content but generating ad revenue. Obviously the videos must be interesting, but so too must their thumbnails, to encourage people to click and watch. Neon Labs, a Carnegie Mellon University startup company has recently signed an agreement with IGN Entertainment, so the startup's thumbnail-selection software can find the best images.

Researchers from many institutions have found that our preferences can be influenced by visual perception, without our knowing. The Neon Labs software applies this knowledge to scan a video stream for the thumbnail that will encourage the most engagement. In some cases the algorithms can lead to 100% more engagement over the images humans may select. For IGN though, the clickability increased by 30%, on average, which is still impressive. It also took over the significant amount of work required to select thumbnails, making it a "huge win" for the company.